Homes see first annual price drop on record

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) ? Prices of homes sold in December registered the biggest year-over-year decline on record, according to a report from an industry trade group, and 2007 is the first year on record that has seen a drop.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday that the median price of homes sold in December fell nearly 6 percent from a year earlier to $208,400. The three biggest declines in prices ever recorded have now come in the last four months.

In addition to the December price decline, NAR reported the median price for all homes sold in 2007 fell 1.3 percent to $218,900, the first time that the annual price reading has shown a decline since the group started tracking that measure in 1968.

“What we saw in December was a rough month to cap off a rough year,” said Mike Larson, real estate analyst with Weiss Research. “There wasn’t much holiday cheer.”